by Naomi Cunningham & Michael Reed
This is a post about avoiding a certain kind of dispute with your employer, rather than winning it.
Section 11(2) of the Copyrights Designs and Patents Act 1998 reads:
Where a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work is made by an employee in the course of his employment, his employer is the first owner of any copyright in the work subject to any agreement to the contrary
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Employers can be careless about accidentally waiving privilege. If they mention the legal advice that they have received in their witness statement, they may have waived their legal professional privilege and given you the chance to demand to see the advice.
Sometimes when you ask a simple factual question, the witness doesn’t seem to want to answer it at all.
Sometimes, when you are cross-examining a witness, you get an answer that you are very pleased with: for example, if you want to discredit the witness, you will be delighted if he says something that be refuted by a document in the bundle. But try not to look too much like a cat pouncing on a mouse.
Most legal documents are written with numbered paragraphs. For example:
- Mr Smith worked for Grindles Ltd as an assembler. He was employed between 21st September 1998 and 3rd December 2007.
- In September 2007 Mr Smith began experiencing difficulties with his left leg, which affected his mobility. His GP diagnosed him with early onset arthritis and referred him to a specialist consultation, Dr Hobbs.
After the respondent’s representative has finished cross-examining your witness, you have the chance to ask some further questions arising out the cross-examination. This is called ‘re-examination.’